The Runaway Avatar
by Okina Yume
Summary: It has been sixteen years since Avatar Korra died, and the next one should be in training by now, but he or she was never found. The Air Nomads have been searching the nations for almost a decade. The world is beginning to fall into chaos. Manik could care less about these problems; he determined to hunt down the men of an unknown organization... Full summary inside.
1. A Decade's Rage

AN: I decided to try out an ALOK story after this came to me when I'd finished season 3. Meaning _this may or may not follow canon. _

Full Summary:** It has been sixteen years since Avatar Korra died, and the next one should be in training by** **now,** **but he or she was never found. The Air Nomads have been searching this nations for almost** **a** **decade, but the avatar remains missing. The world is beginning to fall into chaos. Manik could care less about these problems; he is hell-bent on chasing down the men of an unknown organization and bringing his parents' murderers to justice, if not death. So when he starts fire-bending in the middle of an earth-bending fight, he knows what's coming. And he wants no part of it. Despite his best efforts, he is dragged into helping the leaders of the world bring peace once again.**

Since this is supposed to be 70+ years after Korra's death, few to none of the old characters will show up here. :( Im sorry.

Disclaimer: I own the majority of the stuff in this story, how am I supposed to say 'this doesn't belong to me'? Pretty much the only thing I don't own is the history and much of the world from the show.

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><p><strong>A<strong> **_Decade's Rage_**

Manik stared down at the avalanche.

He could only watch as the rocks continued to tumble over his home, his village, everything he'd ever known. It had come out of nowhere. He had been napping two minutes ago, then suddenly he'd jerked awake to the sound of his older brother screaming at him to get up. The earth was rumbling and shaking with a fury he'd never felt before. His brother had grabbed his arm and hauled him out of bed and into the living room where his parents were waiting. They'd planned for this kind of emergency scenario and were ready to take action. In his confusion, he'd looked up the mountain that they lived on and saw the rocks plummeting towards them.

His father had pushed him towards the door and earth-bent a platform underneath him, sending it away from the house and out of range of the landslide. He'd stumbled and fell down on the platform as it sped away, but he had looked back to see his parents coming after him.

Only they hadn't come after him. Just as his father had started bending a second platform for his brother, boulders slammed into the house, crushing it instantly. The rest of the village similarly met its demise.

He cried in grief and misery for his family and friends, letting out a howl of anguish into the sky. What would he do without his family? He loved them and couldn't bear to go on without them. He couldn't take care of himself, and he certainly didn't have anyone to ask for guidance. And there was no one left to continue on his training.

But then he looked up to the top of the cliff, and he saw something. A blast of orange sent more rocks tumbling down the side of the rock face.

Manik didn't understand. Where had those blasts come from? He wiped his eyes and climbed up the hill towards the blasts. When he got close to the top, he saw them–three men, each holding onto some kind of remote in their hands. The first one had black hair down to his shoulders, deep brown eyes, and he was wearing a black tunic decorated with green accents, along with slim black pants. A dark brown belt with some kind of red circular symbol in the center was tightened around his waist, and boots of the same color stretched halfway up his shins. Another had a brown beard and mustache, bushy enough to make up for the lack of hair on the top of his head. The third man was fairly young, with no hair on his face except a small amount of stubble. The other two were wearing the same outfit as the first man. Bushy-Beard slammed his thumb down onto a red button on the device, and another blast of fire rocketed into the earth, sending more rocks over the cliff.

Then he knew. These men were purposely attacking his village. He didn't know why, but he didn't care. He had to make them stop; there could be someone from his village still down there, slim as the chances of that were.

The little boy ran at them as fast as he could, screaming in anger, levitating rocks from the earth, just as his father had taught him, and sent them flying towards the men.

One of them cried out and pointed at the rocks, and the men dodged out of the way before they could get hit. The last one to detonate the explosions pulled out a smaller stick, lobbed it at the boy, and ran.

Manik was still hurling rocks at the men when he was thrown back by the sheer force of the explosion from the dynamite. He fell backwards and over the cliff–almost. He had just barely managed to snag the edge of the rock face to avoid falling off.

The boy heaved himself onto the overhang, rolling away from the edge quickly, breathing heavily from the effort. Smoke shielded him from the other men, and they talked amongst each other quietly.

"Should we make sure the kid's gone? I don't want anyone following us," one of them said.

A man with a deeper voice answered him. "The cliff made sure of that. C'mon, let's get outta here and get ready for the next few weeks. We got a lotta digging ahead of us."

The smoke began to clear, and Manik looked towards where he thought then men would be. They were climbing into a truck he'd never seen before, stamped on the back with the same circular symbol on the belts of the men. It was two half circles inside a larger ring, with the edges of the semicircles curled inwards on themselves, creating quarters in the hoop.

In that moment, he burned the image into his mind, vowing to track down the men who had been responsible for his family's deaths and make them pay for what they had done. He wouldn't rest until they were brought to justice, or dead.

Manik woke up screaming, panting heavily as his heart slowly decreased down to a normal level. Sweat ran down his brow as he inhaled quickly, trying to get rid of the memory of the dream. He could only breathe sharply as he remembered how he'd had that dream many times over again.

But it wasn't a dream. It had actually happened; it was a reality for him. A living nightmare. One that had plagued him for a decade now.

Manik walked over to the closet and grabbed his favorite outfit: A washed out green jacket with sleeves rolled up to the elbows and the neckline open, baggy green pants of the same color, and a black t-shirt. They were covered in dirt, but he didn't mind. On the contrary, he preferred it.

He was six when it happened. Nightmares had tormented him throughout the first year, but he toughened up, telling himself that he couldn't get revenge if he couldn't even deal with a stupid dream.

The teen pulled his night shirt up and over his head, revealing toned stomach and arm muscles from all his time bending and fighting. His legs were just the same, maybe stronger, considering all the days he'd been walking.

Ten years ago today; his birthday. He'd eliminated the nightmares from his sleep on every other day of the year except this one. At age sixteen, he now despised his birthday with a burning passion, as much as he hated the men who'd brought it upon him. To him it was a reminder of all he'd lost, and what he had to do.

Manik tossed his night clothes on the bed, and grabbed his black shirt and pants, putting those on first. Walking to the mirror, he pulled on his jacket, tugging at the front to set it firmly on his torso. He pulled back his bangs, black as coal and hanging down two inches above his shoulders. He liked to let it hang strait and flat, unhindered by objects like so many other members of the earth kingdom liked to have.

Since that day, he'd spent his life hunting down those men all over the nation. And to his total dismay, he'd only come up with the barest information on them. They were part of an organization. The symbol on the truck meant 'wealth' or 'prosperity'. They had attacked villages similarly before.

He looked into his own green eyes and saw anger, grit, and determination. That and black marks under his eyes from hunting around after dark one too many times.

The teen groaned and turned away from the mirror. He had an ungoverned habit of looking at himself every morning on his birthday. He wasn't 100% sure why he did it, but he thought it was because he wanted to see himself growing up, when his parents couldn't. It was a bitter musing, but he believed he was a bitter person now, so he didn't think too much of it.

He walked towards the door and pulled on his black hiking boots, well-worn, but sturdy, perfect for all his treks around the continent. Opening the door, he let in a cool breeze, rays of sunshine, and, unfortunately, a small spirit.

Manik looked at it. "Oi, get out." His tone said this wasn't up for debate.

The spirit tilted its small but long white beak upwards towards his voice, ruffling its miniscule feathers lightly.

Manik continued to glare down at it, while the tiny creature looked up at him with doe-like eyes. He growled at the creature menacingly to scare it away. It did just the opposite: it walked a few baby steps forward, or by the creature's standards, ran a few steps forward.

The teen was so surprised by this that he stepped back and his eyes widened in shock. After the two-second freak out, he took a second look at the creature. In total, the bird-spirit was about seven inches tall. Its beak was slightly curved, attached to a white spherical head. The white color stopped abruptly below the spirit's thin neck, changing into a bright pink color as its fatter body rounded out into a bigger sphere, supported only by dainty yellow legs. The wings at its sides were also tiny, and definitely didn't look like they were meant for flying. To anyone else, it would have been called adorable. But Manik was not 'anyone else'.

He made an irritated noise before he shooed the spirit bird out with his foot, tapping it out the door before he closed said door behind him. Sighing in relief after making sure the spirit couldn't get in again, he set off.

The hotel Manik was staying in was browning and run down, with graffiti all over the walls. His eyes roved the dirty surface as he walked away from his apartment, taking in the strange pictures drawn there, and occasionally making eye contact with another walker nearby.

He sighed to himself softly, feeling that today would be just like all the others: fruitless and tiring. He silently chided himself for the thought. Anything could happen; the chance of finding new information was out there. He just had to hunt for it.

With these thoughts pushing him forward, he made his way to the pub down by the markets on main street. People were everywhere, merging in and out between stalls and each other, all trying to get to their own destination. Some people yelled at him when he rudely pushed between them, but he didn't stop to apologize. He had better things to do.

Pushing open the door, he glanced around the dimly lit room. Groups of people in varying numbers sat in raised chairs near tall tables or at the bar on the left. He looked carefully for anyone who might be dealing with the 'wealth' organization or know anything about them. After the first few years, he honed in a sense for information dealers or people on the black market. He couldn't really describe it, but those kinds of people just had this aura of trouble that followed them around, an aura that he could now spot from a mile away.

Unfortunately for him, no one jumped out as someone of that nature when he looked around the room. He growled softly in frustration before moving on, taking a spot at the bar where he could watch the door. He'd heard some rumors that a black market smuggler came here every morning for a drink, and he intended to catch him and grill him for any info he had.

He ordered a drink and prepared for boredom until the man got here. If he got here at all. Manik had been waiting here yesterday, and the man hadn't shown. Either that or he hadn't recognized him the first day, which meant he had to keep a sharper eye out today.

He looked up to the TLV on the side of the bar, where it was blaring out the news, currently featuring the an announcer with the same message that had been playing as far back as he could remember.

"...ay is the sixteenth anniversary of Avatar Korra's death. Nine years ago, the Air Nomad officials went out to search for the next Avatar in the Earth Kingdom. The child was never found. Since that time, government leaders have sent search parties all over the world in an attempt to find him or her. We ask that everyone be compliant and welcoming to the Scanners as they test those under and at the age of sixteen for the Avatar's skills. On a lighter note, Tashi Corporations has finished their recent project of connecting Republic City an..."

Manik tuned out the rest of the news and thought about the happenings of the world around him. He usually ignored the news in any way, because he'd learned a long time ago that the news never had anything worth listening to. And no matter how hard he'd looked, he never found that strange symbol anywhere.

But even he wasn't oblivious enough to know what was going on. The United Republic of Nations was looking for the Avatar; there wasn't really any way of missing it. Scanners were everywhere. Their job was basically find any kid under sixteen and test them for avatar abilities or something. By this point, everyone knew what the test was: children were asked to select from a large pile of toys and if they got the right ones, they were the avatar.

Manik personally thought this method was ridiculous. How were four old toys going to find the avatar when highly trained benders, scouts, government officials, and even bounty hunters found squat on the kid? He'd never bothered for that reason. Well, that and the Scanners' annoying habit of throwing people in jail whenever they were causing trouble; they were turning into the world wide police force by this time. He didn't want to get caught and he _certainly_ didn't want to get stuck in some orphan school if they decided he was just a troublemaker making a racket.

People had been speculating about what happened to the Avatar: Maybe he or she disappeared again like Avatar Aang in his youth. Or maybe the avatar line was cut off because of Harmonic Convergence. Manik didn't understand this, but of course he wouldn't, he'd never received a formal education. Not that he particularly wanted one; none of it would help him with his own hunt.

Others thought that the avatar was killed at a young age and was reborn into the fire nation. Because of this rumor, Scanners were also sent to the fire nation as well as the air nomad temples as a safety measure. This is the reason anyone under sixteen years was asked to take the test. He remembered the words _under sixteen._ He was likely too old by a few days. Just as well, probably.

He thought about the poor sap who would get stuck with the burden of being the avatar if he or she was ever found. Considering how the URN was reacting to the avatar's absence right now, they'd probably never let the avatar leave the place he or she was to learn the elements to avoid anything like this happening again. He'd hate that. Not only would it keep him from fulfilling his revenge, but it would also keep him stuck in one place. After spending the majority of his life moving, he couldn't imagine staying in one place forever. He laughed out loud at the thought.

Another customer gave him a weird look, and he remembered where he was and what he was supposed to be doing. He looked at the TLV for the time; he'd been here for fifteen minutes. He felt a sliver of worry at the chance that he might've missed the man and turned to look at the rest of the bar, scanning over the people already there, but he only noticed a few other new people. They looked harmless, and he felt a twinge of disappointment.

Fifteen minutes stretched into thirty, thirty stretched into an hour. He was beginning to give up hope that the man would show and was thinking about leaving for some other town when suddenly someone tapped him on the shoulder. Intrigued, he turned to see a large man with puffed up hair and sideburns staring down at him.

"Move," he commanded.

"What? No." Manik didn't know who this guy was, but he certainly wasn't getting up for him.

The man furrowed his brows in irritation. "I said move."

"No," he repeated, with determination in his voice.

The man growled intensely, but this just made Manik more determined not to move. "Kids like you don't belong here; this is a man's place. Go back to school, like a good little boy."

The teen stood up and faced the man. "Oh, and just because I'm younger than you, I'm not a man? What gave you the impression I'd just bend to your will like one of the elements? I don't listen to anyone. And I bet I could beat you in a fight if it came to that."

The man laughed haughtily, gesturing at Manik while he looked to two other men and a mean-looking woman standing next to him. "Look at this guy, this kid here can talk big, but I bet ya he can't follow up on it." He turned back to the teen in question and spoke to him, "Put your money where your mouth is. A hundred yuan says you can't beat me."

Manik's eyes widened a fraction of an inch. A hundred yuan could set him up for months. Money was an issue, as it would be for anyone living alone, but he'd also learned to be frugal. He couldn't keep any solid jobs because he traveled around so often, and because of that, most of the time he had to steal.

He smirked at the man in front of him. "Bring it on."

But before they could start, the barman caught their attention, saying, "Hey, take it outside. Last guys fought here tore a hole through the wall and ripped up the floor. Scared out all my customers, too."

The atmosphere was broken by this distraction, but the animosity was still there. Grudgingly, the man and his cohorts moved outside, lead by Manik.

When they were outside, Manik turned to face him.

"You gunna set out the money or wait 'til the end to call me a cheat and keep it anyways?" He knew that the latter would likely happen if he did beat the man. Which of course he would, of that he had no doubt.

The man scoffed at him, "You'd think I'd back out of a fight against some kid? I'll knock you down before you can get one shot on me. That'll teach you to go against your elders." He tossed a bundle of bills to his partner off to the side, then turned back to begin the match. He got into a fighting stance, standing a few feet away from the younger man.

Manik mimicked him, spreading his feet apart, one set in front of the other, with his arms bent and fists clenched.

The man's face hardened into an aggressive glower. He let out a yell and threw his arms in the air, summoning boulders from the ground, then launched them forwards as his arms moved in the same direction: towards Manik.

The teen was temporarily startled by this, and he twisted out of the way before getting hit. "You never said we were bending!" he yelled at the man.

The man in question laughed scornfully at him, saying, "You should've asked about it before we started then!" He brought up more boulders, smaller this time, sending them at Manik, but they came closer to him as he dodged, their size making them more maneuverable.

He continued to evade the boulders twice more, getting a sense for how the man fought as he was taunted relentlessly for being an amateur.

"I think it's obvious who's the real winner here," the man said, stopping his attack and beginning to turn away.

"Wait."

Hearing this, the man turned again, looking over to the boy contemptuously. He brought up another boulder, sneering at him. "You want another pounding, kid?" But he was suddenly startled by smirk on the boy's face. He'd beaten him, hadn't he?

Evidently not. Manik pulled up his own rocks from the ground, staring the man head on. "You wanna have a real fight now?"

Breaking out of his confused stupor, the man let his boulder fly directly at the teen. Manik made a connection to the boulder, and punched it back towards the man, hurling his own stones with them.

The older man pulled up a wall of earth in defense. He brought it down again, ready to face his opponent, only to see a wave of earth coming at him. He was knocked back into the side of the bar, leaving a small crater in the impact.

"Who's the kid now?" Manik yelled to the man. He waited for the man to stand up again, and wasn't disappointed.

Enraged now, the man shouted at the boy in fury. He called up more earth from the ground, kicking them and punching them towards the teen, who sent them back to the man or smashed them to bits.

He could only smirk, reveling in the improvements he'd made since the last fight.

He placed himself in a position to make an earth line when he was suddenly knocked off balance by a rock to his back.

"Ack!" He lost his balance and tripped, allowing the man some time to launch another rock at him. He just barely dodged it. Quickly, he spared a glance to his left, and noticed one of the man's friends off to the side.

_That_ _was dirty,_ he thought. He'd been prepared for it anyways, knowing how people became desperate in fights, including him sometimes. He jumped back up to avoid another shot, and pulled up his own earth wall when a long column shot up out of the ground from his left.

Just because he expected it, didn't mean he liked it, and the double opponents were starting to get on his nerves as he dodged and defended against more attacks.

Getting increasingly less patient, he decided to bring out some of his special moves. He spun in a circle to avoid another pillar of rock, while beginning his actions in the technique. He put his right foot behind him, his left foot in front, and brought up his arms, holding his left hand out straight in front of him, and keeping his right hand behind him, slightly below his other arm. Then, quick as a flash, he yanked his right arm forward, keeping his fingers together, and when his arms were nearly equal, he moved his left hand down, right hand up, as if they were rotating a sphere. By that time, a small wave of earth forms at his waist, heading for the man's partner.

In the next instant, he spun his hands, switching their positions as if turning a wheel. The wave of earth started spinning, breaking off into two swirling masses, similar to jets of water, and rocketing into the second man. The man's eyes widened in shock as he saw it. He'd never seen an earth bender fight like this before, as if he was water bending. But this was all he had time to think until he went flying into the building behind him, cracking a hole through the wall and falling into the room.

Back outside, Manik generated an earth shelter from the ground just before the first man could hit him with a line of earth. He forcefully pushed the shelter back into the earth, before extending his arms outwards then in like a circle. This sent it underground and around, towards the man, until it erupted into a block of stone underneath him. The man was sent flying upwards, and he let out a startled cry.

When he fell back to the ground, Manik stood ten feet away from him, smirking triumphantly with his arms crossed.

"I believe that's a hundred yuan for me."

The man grunted and stood back up, getting in one last jeer before he attacked, saying, "Your mother could fight better than that!"

Manik met the man's fist with his own, ignoring the pain that shot through his arm from the clash. He couldn't stop replaying those last fateful moments in his head as he heard the taunt. He looked directly in the man's eye with a fury as red and hot as magma. "No one. Insults. My mother."

With this he gave a growl of fury and punched the man under the chin, abandoning his bending for a good old fashioned fight. Pride and money didn't matter anymore; anyone who insulted his family would pay.

The man returned the gesture by striking at the teen's chest, sending him back a few feet and knocking the wind out of his lungs. He spent a few seconds gasping for air, and he just barely evaded the next punch. After standing up shakily, Manik ran at the man, kicking him in the side to throw him off guard before knife handing him in the face. Or in the neck. His shorter size made it hard to hit the other man in the face. The man shouted once in pain of the attack.

The man was stronger than him, and they both knew it. He punched Manik in the face, making him disoriented for a few seconds. This gave his opponent a chance to knock him to the ground with a sharp kick. He rolled out of reach of the next punch, glancing quickly at the crater in the ground where he was two seconds ago.

He wasn't nearly as good as this kind of fight as with bending; he tried to avoid them as much as possible. Unless he was being stupid and wanted to kill someone with his bare hands. But he'd have to finish this fast to walk away from the fight.

Grunting with the effort, he used his hands to push himself off from the ground while slamming his feet into the man's stomach. As the man doubled over in pain, he got up and struck the man with his knee, setting him off balance and onto the ground.

Manik panted heavily as he stared down at the man, who was starting to move again. He was about to kick him in the side as a warning, when a hand pulled him away forcefully. Turning, he was met with the face of a Scanner, scowling down at him reprovingly.

"You two are disrupting the peace and are under arrest until this matter is sorted out." Two other Scanners were pulling his opponent onto his feet and escorting him away, most likely towards the police station.

A flash of fear rocketed through Manik as he remembered what would happen to him. Cold, harsh terror churned in his stomach at the thought of getting so far only to be stopped here. Not getting _anywhere_ only to be stopped here.

In that rush, he threw the Scanner's hand off him and ran. He heard the man yelling for him to stop, but he wouldn't. Sweat ran down his brow as panic set in, urging him to get away from the group as fast as he could.

Dodging past people, stands, and spirits alike, he didn't stop running. His heart stuttered in fright as he heard the sound of the Scanners' motorcycles behind him. They were rapidly gaining, and only his excellent maneuvering around the markets kept him from their grasp.

He pulled up walls and pillars to block the Scanners' path, and two of the men crashed into the solid earth. He brought up another wall and another one went down, followed by two more crashing into a pillar. After three minutes going on like this, only the man who had grabbed Manik in the first place had managed to stay in pursuit.

As a last resort, Manik stood his ground and faced the oncoming motorcycle. He shot his arms outwards, with his fingers splayed out, pointing at the ground. In this movement, all the dust on his clothes flew off, encompassing him in a cloud. He crossed his arms over his chest, causing the dust particles to swirl in opposite directions, creating a small tornado.

The Scanner stopped his pursuit to watch this phenomenon temporarily. But then he brought out the water from his sack at his waist, flinging it at the dust storm.

In the same moment, Manik projected the dirt in the air at the Scanner, and the combining elements created a mix, splashing muddy water over them both.

After getting some of the slush of himself, the teen created a wall from one side of the street to the other to prevent him from following, seeing as his last trick didn't work. He continued to run away, which was probably a good thing, because when he looked over his shoulder, he saw the Scanner and his motorbike being lifted by a platform of ice over the wall.

Seeing this was all he needed to keep running. He continued to evade the Scanner, when suddenly he was blocked by a screen of ice that formed in front of his path. Manik swiftly tore up the ice with an earth pillar and continued running, but he couldn't help but despair knowing that the Scanner was closer to catching him than ever. He wouldn't be able to keep his lead if the other man continued to block him.

And just as he thought this, he tripped on a sheet of ice underneath him. He went skidding into a wall of a building where a nearby stand collapsed on him. As swiftly as he could, he pushed the broken pieces of wood off him, got up and started to run again. But before he could go two feet, he felt his legs snap together and fell face first on the ground.

Rolling over, he saw that his ankles were locked together with weighted ropes. He looked up and saw the Scanner not ten feet away from him and closing in. This again spurred him on, and he almost cut himself in his haste to create a sharp enough rock to break through the bonds. He never took his eyes off the Scanner as he stumbled into standing position.

"C'mon kid. You need to serve your time like the other guy. Don't make this any harder on yourself." He extended a hand to Manik, showing him that he didn't want to hurt him.

The teen could only stare at him in shock and fear. " I c– ...I can't," he said, shaking his head.

The Scanner looked at him with confusion. He stepped forward, saying, "What are you talking a–"

"NO!" Manik closed his eyes and forcefully smacked the man's hand away from him, but as he did, a jet of fire burst out from his hand, smiting the man across his chest. The Scanner fell with a grunt of pain as he felt the burning sensation slash over his abdomen.

Both widened their eyes in shock as they looked at Manik's hand. He was still supporting a small plume of fire. _Everyone_ who had seen the last few minutes knew what that meant.

Manik had never sworn so viciously in his life.

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><p>symbol on the truck:<br>/media/catalog/product/cache/1/thumbnail/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/w/e/wealth_-prosperity_

AN: Yay! Ch 1 posted!

Since this is nearly all self-made, I will welcome any ideas you readers have. One person can come up with a solution to a problem where another can't. Most of this will be created as I go along, so your ideas will be put into consideration and likely added into this.

:) Thank you for reading! Pls review!


	2. Steps Forward

**AN:** I Am SO SORRY that this is as late as it is. Life Happened, and so did a new tv show.

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><p><em><strong>Steps <strong>__**Forward**_

Manik glanced at the Scanner. He saw the man reach for his radio and destroyed it with a rock as soon as he could. He was already in enough trouble; he didn't need any back-up to chase him down, too.

Turning on his heels, Manik ran. Processing the events from what just happened proved too challenging as he kept running into the obstacles in front of him. He shook his head to clear it and just focused on getting away.

He twisted and stopped, looking for anyone following him, Scanners in particular. Their full white uniforms would've given them away in the middle of the crowds, so it was easy to see that there were none.

He panted, looking at a sea of green and grey, occasionally spotting red, blue, black, and orange-yellow. Leaning on his knees, he gave himself some time to catch his breath before he could get ready to run again. He'd never sprinted that hard in his life, and it was beginning to take a toll on him.

Grunting softly, he collapsed against the side wall of a shaded building next to him. He decided to use the short break to process everything that had happened since that moment. Morning, sixteenth birthday, hate birthday, look in the mirror, walk out-

He suddenly remembered the spirit from that morning. He wondered if it was some kind of omen that he'd missed, and now he'd be cursed with bad luck for not letting it into his room. He groaned at the thought. Great. The last thing he needed was _more bad luck._ He already had plenty of it, if the current results of his hunt was anything to go by.

He moved back to his previous train of thought, recalling the next few things that happened. Walk through market, bar, wait for guy, bar confrontation, fight–in his opinion he did pretty well in that match–fight stopped by Scanners, running from Scanners, and then _fire bending! In front of_ _a_ _Scanner no less!_ Even after all the terrible things that had happened to him, why did _more_ trouble have to be heaped onto his plate?!

Manik let out a loud yell of frustration, causing a few heads to turn his way. He stood up and started punching the wall behind him, muttering curses and random words to vent out his anger.

"Stupid...missing...avatar...bothering me...don't...need this!" When he was done, he sank to his knees, panting at the ground.

He flipped over and leaned against the wall again, thinking. He was the avatar. A Scanner had seen him bend two elements, and would alert rest of the force. They'd track him down and drag him away. But he couldn't let that happen. He had to run from them, and find the men who'd killed his family. He wouldn't rest until then.

But in order to avoid capture, he'd have to get out of here. This town would be crawling with Scanners by nightfall, if not sooner. He'd left all his stuff back at the hotel, so he'd be needing to get that back. Anything else could wait until then.

He quickly pushed himself off the wall, heading back towards the hotel. Or, where he thought the hotel was. He was in a completely unrecognized part of town. Nothing looked even particularly familiar.

He turned in a circle, trying to remember which direction he went when he'd walked around the town two days ago.

Worriedly, Manik looked around for any landmarks that made this place stand out against the rest of the village. There were none. It appeared as an ordinary road in an ordinary village: unhelpful.

He yelled again and kicked a nearby door, putting all his frustrations into that one movement. The door fell in on its hinges, revealing a small family eating lunch at a low table, and smashing into pieces on the ground. For a while there was silence, then one of the men got up from where he was sitting, wearing a threatening expression.

Manik's eyes widened as he saw this. Now would be a good time to skedaddle. He ran down the street, turning the corner just as the older man shouted at him to get back and fix his mess.

The man hadn't followed him, but now he was in a new part of town, which meant new dangers. Anxiously, his eyes quickly scanned the buildings and people, zipping back and forth to assess his surroundings. He saw the people in this area wore clothes of a grayer, dustier color than those in the last street, and many looked haggard. Some of kids leaning against the dilapidated walls of the buildings didn't look any older than he was.

It was all unsettling. Ducking his head, he avoided making eye contact with anyone nearby and walked a little faster. He didn't want to be in places like these any more than necessary. He was nearly out of the grimy area when he heard something.

"...house collapse in an explosion! The town was destroyed! I barely got away with my life! I'm telling you it was sabotage! You know, this happened to the village a few miles from–"

The old man never got any further, because Manik had grabbed a hold of his coat, turning him so they could see eye to eye.

"Say that again."

The man was so startled by this abrupt disruption that he could only blink in surprise at the teen, who was glaring down at him.

"M-my village was destroyed."

"Destroyed. As in attacked?"

"Yes, that's what I said." The man nodded fervently at him.

A listening woman was not so keen to have the story interrupted. "What are you doing?! Put him down, or I'll call the police!"

Manik let go of the man as if he spontaneously turned into ice, but he didn't walk away. The Scanners and now the police would be after him, but he couldn't let a possible lead slip away from him now. "Tell me what happened!"

"W-what?" the old man questioned, confused at his now pleading tone.

"Tell me what happened to your village," he repeated. "Did you see how it was destroyed, who destroyed it?!"

The woman from before began to protest, but the old man held up a hand to stop her. He stepped closer to Manik, looking into his eyes. "You really want to know, don't you?"

The teen fought the urge to step back as the man stared into his eyes inquiringly. He swallowed once and nodded. "Yes."

The old man nodded back at him in agreement. "Alright," he said, his eyes twinkling in slight amusement. "I will be at the old tavern a few blocks down. You know it?"

Manik nodded, despite not having a clue where it was. He figured he could find it if he was determined enough.

"Meet me there at three," the man continued. "I'll tell you my story then." Manik quickly looked up at the sky. It was 12:30 at the moment.

The youth could only nod earnestly in his newly bubbling exhilaration. He'd finally get another lead on those men, and he'd be one step closer to avenging his family. On top of that, the old man had given him time to go get his things before they had to meet again. It was almost too good to be true.

"But," the man continued,"you must tell me your story in return. I want to know why you're so interested in this."

Manik visibly flinched. And there was the catch. He was conflicted about whether he should tell him; on one hand, he'd get the information he desperately needed, and on the other, he didn't want any part of him to be remembered when he left. He wanted to maintain the illusion that he didn't exist, so that nothing could tie him to one place, and no favors would need to be repaid. Now that Scanners would be looking for him, he'd need to preserve that illusion more than ever, or at least hold onto it as long as he could.

But after so long without gaining anything on his quest, he needed some reassurance that he wasn't just chasing ghosts.

"Fine," he said.

The old man gave a contented sigh. "I will see you then, then." He chuckled at his own joke.

"Yeah," Manik confirmed, turning away. "See you then."

He glanced around at the filthy street one last time, locking it into his memory.

* * *

><p>He spent the next hour and a half rediscovering the apartment complex where he had been staying. The majority of that time had been spent avoiding the Scanners, who had nearly doubled in size by the time he'd found the place. He knew he had to get out of there fast, and his haste was possibly the only thing that kept him from being spotted on several occasions.<p>

When he got to his room, he packed up in five minutes, throwing things into his backpack haphazardly. He didn't slow down until his eyes fell upon a small, grey case, lightly decorated with green and brown designs on the length of the box.

He walked over to it, almost as if in a trance. Opening the lid, he looked down at twin bracelets and anklets, gleaming in silver, a small green symbol for earth bending engraved into the side.

He pulled out one of the bracelets, turning it over in his hand. These had saved his life once, they might do it again. After a moment's thought, he put on the silver circlets, clamping them over his wrists and ankles. They molded slightly to fit and stay secured on his body.

He packed the case into his backpack and threw in a few other things before closing it and swinging it onto his back. He pulled open the door—and walked straight into a Scanner.

Both people simply stared at each other for a few seconds until Manik slammed the door in the woman's face.

As she banged on the door, yelling for him to open up, Manik felt fear creep into his heart once again. How could they have arrived here so soon?! His eyes zipped around the room as he wracked his brain for a way to get out of the situation without being caught. Then he thought of something.

"Alright! If you won't come out, then I'll have to come in!" With these words, the woman knocked down the door and stormed into the room. It was empty.

The woman scowled at the idea of having to search like a child playing hide-and-seek for the boy she saw. He looked a little bit like the description she'd gotten for the avatar, but she thought the boy was too short to be him.

She had opened the door to the closet to look for him when suddenly the door of the apartment slammed shut. She whipped around, shutting the closet door hastily and looking out the window. The boy was running away from the apartment as fast as he could, kicking up clouds of dust in his wake. The woman grabbed her radio and called up her superiors.

Outside, Manik was practically flying in his hurry to run away. He found himself running at his top speed once again, and felt his legs and lungs start to burn. He forced himself to keep moving, ignoring the pain in his chest, telling himself he could stop when he got there.

And just as he thought he was a safe distance away, he tripped over something on the ground and fell face first into the dirt.

He spit out some of the dust that had managed to get into his mouth and rolled over to see what had tripped him. Standing by his foot was the same pink and white spirit from that morning.

Manik didn't know what to think for a second. As he stared at it, he had a quick thought: _Is this thing following me?_ He remembered the possibility of a curse from the creature, and became enraged.

As his face contorted into a furious grimace, he viciously swiped at the creature by his foot, trying to grab it. The spirit deftly jumped away on its tiny legs, just out of reach.

The teen growled at the spirit-bird angrily and attempted to seize it again. The creature again dodged away. Manik stood up and kicked at the bird, but after it evaded his mini-rock line he produced, the spirit turned and ran in the other direction.

Manik gave chase. The spirit darted through the crowds of people, making it harder for Manik to follow, and eventually, he lost sight of it.

He was mildly annoyed that he couldn't squash the spirit, but he was glad it was gone now. Dimly, he hoped that this encounter hadn't made his luck any worse.

He was in the same street as before, thankfully, so he didn't have to figure out where he was again. He glanced up at the sky, almost on reflex, and he noticed that he had only fifteen minutes to get back to where he'd met the old man from earlier.

Not good.

He bolted around the crowds and out of the street, and he only hoped he wasn't too late.

* * *

><p>When Manik finally found the tavern that the man had mentioned, he was leaning against the wall, once again heaving after the long run.<p>

"I really need to stop running like this, " he said to himself, panting in between words.

"Hey, kid!" Manik looked up to see the old man waving at him and smiling happily.

"Come on over!" He beckoned the teen with a hand, calling him to the table he was sitting at.

Manik straightened up and walked to the table, his legs shaking a little. When he reached the table, he promptly collapsed into the chair across from the old man. "You wouldn't believe what I had to do to get here."

"Not even an apology for being late?" The old man raised an eyebrow at him skeptically.

Manik lifted his head and stared at the man. He hadn't apologized for anything since the day his parents died, and he wasn't about to break that streak.

Folding his arms, he looked at the table and avoided eye contact with the old man.

"Ah, guess not." The man shrugged. "If you are going to get anywhere around here, it'd be best to learn at least a few manners."

"I'm not staying," Manik retorted.

"No?" the man asked.

"No. I'm hunting down my family's murderers."

The old man's eyebrows shot up. "Oh? Were they killed in an attack to your own village?"

"Ye-" Manik almost continued into his revenge story, but he realized that he was telling the man his story without hearing about the other's. He clammed up immediately.

"I want to hear your story first." He slammed his fist on the table, attempting to show resolve in this order.

But the old man only laughed at him sourly. "You think I'm in any hurry to retell my tale so soon after it happened?"

"You seemed eager enough to tell those others earlier today," Manik retorted.

"I felt people needed to know what was going on, warn them! I can't see you offering yourself to help, so what's the rush in telling you?"

Manik was rapidly loosing his patience. "Are you gonna tell me or not?!"

The old man only sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Youngsters these days, always in a rush."

The 'youngster' made a loud noise of frustration and made gestures at the old man indicating he would strangle the old man for taking his time before he actually heard what the man had said.

"Wait, what do you mean 'warn them'?" He put his arms down and gave the old man a confused look.

The old man's face twisted into a deep frown. "This city is about to be attacked."

"What?! How do you know?!" Manik demanded.

"Wait, let me start back at the beginning. It was last month, just a normal morning. Now, every day I do my morning activities, water the garden, take a walk around the block, say hello to my neighbors..."

The teen across from him thought it was a bit ironic how the old man had been trying to get him to talk first, but when he started talking, he didn't seem to want to stop. Although he wished that the old man would move on to the attack already.

"...talking to Mrs. Sharp about the lovely weather, when all of a sudden, we saw an explosion from the south side of town! Everyone outside turned to see what had happened, but none of us knew. We were all clueless, staring outside at the cloud from the explosion that had appeared from nowhere."

Manik woke out of his 'boring-not-listening' state as he heard this. Finally he was getting what he'd been looking for.

"Then, just after that, a second explosion came, closer to us this time, and when we saw this, everybody ran. We all just ran, didn't get anything from our houses, 'cept maybe family members-and I swear I saw Mr. Bailey trying to drag his gold chess set out of his house, oh but that's not important-, but we just ran. Then just after, and we heard another explosion behind us. I turned around, and I saw another explosion and it was still getting closer. But it was a little bit off to the left, and I saw this, you see, so I went right, trying to get away from the rest of them that were coming. The others, they didn't see that. They just keep running straight. I hadn't thought to warn them about the change, but if I had..."

At this spot, the old man stopped speaking as he thought about the 'what ifs' of that day.

Manik couldn't bear to keep waiting, so he cleared his throat to catch the man's attention. "Continue?"

"Oh, yes. Right. Sorry about that." He began again. "As we all ran, in whatever direction we were going, the explosions just came closer and closer. And here I was thinking to myself, 'where are the Scanners? Why aren't they helpin' us?' so I turned around again, and I saw them. They were trying to build up a wall of all the elements across the center of town so the explosions would stop. But it didn't work. When the next explosion came, the wall collapsed! It fell down like it was nothing! And it was not nothing, let me tell you. This wall was over 50 feet tall! It-"

"Yes, yes, it was a strong wall, got it," Manik interrupted. "Tell me what happened after that."

"Uh, well, I was running away, then the next moment, an explosion came up right over my house! Everyone was blown away by the blast, including me! I was thrown about 30 feet, and I landed on my arm, see?" At this time, the old man held up a sling holding his arm that Manik hadn't noticed before.

"Doctor said I broke it, and I hafta keep it like this for a while. Darn thing keeping me from pouring my morning tea!"

Manik watched him for a few seconds as he thought about which question he should ask first. "Why do you say this town is going to be attacked? As far as I know, it's just random towns that have been destroyed. Nothing to signal what would be coming next."

The old man hummed in reply. "That's because you didn't know what to look for, sonny." And with these words, he pulled out a map of the area and nearby cities. There were blue markings on the map over three cities, each right next to the other.

"You see these?" the old man asked. The teen across from him nodded.

"These are where the last attacks were." The old man chuckled at the frustrated and confused expression on Manik's face. "I know what you're thinking. 'Why are they all so close together?' "

"It doesn't make sense," Manik affirmed. "There's never been a pattern before, I checked so many times!"

"But these both happened in the last few months."

"Last few-Wha-?!" The youth stuttered. "There were never so many before! Maybe twice a year, but not that often! And-and-" He tried to convey his confusion to the person across from him.

"Hmm... Well, maybe if I tell you more, you'll figure it out." He cut off any more of Manik's words by pointing at the map again. His finger stopped on the northern-most crossed-off village. "This one was destroyed about three months ago. There was a collapse in the sewage system, so the rest of the city collapsed on top of it. I say sabotage, but the Scanners from my town thought it was just an accident! They knew too late that they were wrong!"

The old man moved his finger again, pointing to the next blue X. "This one... My town. One month ago it was destroyed. I already told you what happened." His entire person seemed to droop as he remembered it again.

His hand moved once more, coming to the last marked off town. "This. Is where we are. Lufeng. Next on the list." Manik stared at the little dot. The place where he was. The place where all available Scanners would be converging to find him.

With multiple thought trains rolling around his mind, he pointed to the next town, after the town they were in. "What about this town? D'you think it'll be attacked after this one?"

"That one?" the old man asked, amusement in his eyes. "It was destroyed about six years ago. Thankfully, Tashi Corporations is big on rebuilding, so that city is back better than ever! And don't bother with the rest of them nearby, they were all torn down and rebuilt years ago and are now major cities. Wouldn't surprise me if this place became the new Ba Sing Se."

Manik sat back in his seat. "So you're saying that all the towns in this area have been destroyed or torn down within the last decade or so?"

"Yep, pretty much."

"Except this one."

"Yup."

Manik was speechless.

"Hey, sonny, you ok in there?" the old man asked, waving a hand over the teen's unseeing eyes. He was rapidly trying to comprehend and piece together everything he'd heard and seen.

A grievous and irksome debate roared in his head, silently clashing as he reevaluated his decision to leave the town. On one hand, this town was his only lead, with the chance that he might be able to find and confront the organization that destroyed his home and family, but staying could get him captured. He would be up to his neck in Scanners, government officials, and worse by dusk; also if the man was right and the pattern continued, the next attack wouldn't come for at least a month. The number of Scanners would skyrocket in that time. And, as much as it pained him to think about this, but he couldn't deny was a possibility, there was a chance that nothing would happen no matter how long he waited. Looking at the big picture overall, he came to a hard decision.

He sighed. "I guess that means I'm staying," he muttered to himself.

"What?" the older man furrowed his brow at the young man in confusion.

"A small chance is better than no chance at all." Suddenly he realized he was talking out loud. "Um. I mean– well–"

The man seated at the other side of the table stared at him with a mixture of concern and confusion as he waited for Manik to regain his voice.

"...Nevermind," was all he could think to say.

"No, I want to hear it. Besides, it's your turn to tell me why you're looking for this information anyways."

And at last, the dreaded moment arrived. Manik bit his lip nervously, but he knew he couldn't get out of this short of copping out on the deal. Wait, couldn't he do that? No he couldn't, not without the chance of the old man ratting him out to the police. He had to think of a different way out.

Ask for a postponement? There wouldn't really be any point in that, the old man already knew this was important to him and would see through it in a second. Lie? He could do that. Plenty of practice and simple steps made it easy. And he'd already given a little bit of information that he could use as a starting ground.

Manik gave a sigh, pretending to yield to the man's demands. "It started when I was a kid. My-"

Suddenly he was cut off as a hand slammed down on the table. He looked up, coming face to face with a teenaged boy, about his own age. His black hair hung over his face in a spiky, unkempt mess. A strong jawbone outlined his face, and a cocky smirk revealed his perception of authority over the situation.

"This is my table now. Leave." The other teen stuck his nose in the air as he tried to sound demanding and stubborn.

Unfortunately for him, Manik wasn't in the mood to be bossed around. After a day of downhill circumstances, strained nerves, and endless running, he was at his wits' end.

Clenching his jaw angrily, he abruptly stood up and faced the other teen. "You are the second person today who's told me to move, did you know that? The last one, I beat the crap outta him and knocked him straight into jail. Do you really want to be next? Huh?! Go ahead then, try something!" Belatedly, Manik wondered if being three inches shorter than the other teen would make his threat come off as a lot less legitimate.

To his irritation and confusion, the second teen's smirk only widened. "You obviously fought off a common criminal. But you could not hope to stand against the likes of this." And with these words, he opened his clenched fist, creating a flare of the scorching red element that Manik had produced for the first time that morning. A scathing reminder of how things could change in the blink of an eye, both now and ten years ago.

In two seconds, the fire-bender found himself smashed into the wall. Back by the table, Manik brought down his arm, sending the tilted rock slab back into the ground, a vexed expression sketched onto his face, and his conversations with the old man all but forgotten. The other customers in the tavern turned from their activities to look at the commotion.

The other teen slowly peeled himself off the wall, falling to the floor with a small thud. "I'll get you for that!" All pretense of snobbery had been dropped and replaced with sheer enmity. The teen aimed two fingers at Manik, directing a bolt of lightning at the opposing teen. But before it reached him, the discharge blinked twice before it fizzled out of existence.

"No! Why can't I DO that anymore?!" The fire-bender yelled his grievance out to the crowd of people, none of whom seemed to have an answer for him. Not that he would get a chance to hear one, because he was suddenly knocked down again, courtesy of Manik.

The teen on the ground gave another yell of fury and sent arcs of fire at his opponent, which were blocked by simple walls of earth. Manik watched as the boy stood up again, panting in anger.

But then he took a deep breath, inhaling and exhaling, before literally firing off attacks at a break-neck pace.

Manik's eyes widened a fraction as he saw the speed of the onrush. He backed away, narrowly avoiding the first two blasts, but he took the third one straight in the gut, the impact causing him to keel over halfway. Quickly, he pulled up an earth shelter out of the ground to deflect the next few attacks. One of the fire arcs dodged around his defense and smacked him in the side, causing him to yell and lose his balance.

In a hasty, uncontrolled movement of defense, he slashed his hand through the air, and to his great surprise, the other teen was blown off his feet again, but nothing had hit him. Well, it looked like that anyways. There had been a small disturbance in the air heading right at the fire-bender.

Manik could only stare down at his hand in shock as he realized what happened.

But he didn't have any time to come to terms with what happened, as the door of the tavern suddenly slammed open to reveal the Scanners. About twenty of them.

"Stay where you are!" the leading Scanner yelled. His words were ignored when both Manik and the other teen straightened up and ran. Manik jumped over the counter at the back of the room, heading for an exit there, and noticed the fire-bending teen running right next to him.

"Why are _you_ running from them?" he asked in confusion. It was obvious why Manik was being chased, not so obvious for the other teen. Sure he might be temporarily arrested for causing a commotion, but he'd probably be ignored or get off easy while the Scanners were chasing Manik.

The other teen reached the back door before him, swinging it open and heading outside, followed closely by the earth-bender. Both saw a few other Scanners approaching them from the sides of the building they'd just exited.

"Hey!" Manik yelled, trying to get the other teen's attention.

"What?" he asked. "Oh. Ask me later. Not now." When the teenager looked back at Manik, there was something in his wide eyes, an expression he hadn't seen in a while. An expression he had no time to label because he was currently being dragged away by the person with said expression.

Not that he could complain, because he was pulled out of the path of a metal clamp that attached itself to the wall where he'd been standing three seconds before.

"C'mon!" the other teen yelled as he summoned a wave of fire to pave a path through the people as well as block off the Scanners from getting to them, at least temporarily.

Manik followed him. They both ran through the streets, trying to put some distance between themselves and the Scanners.

"We need to get out of here," the other teen stated gravely.

Manik remembered the village attacks suddenly. "We can't leave!"

"Those guys will come and get us! We can't stay!" argued the other.

"No, we can't. But there's a small settlement on the edge of town where we can go until we have to come back."

Oddly, the teen next to him didn't protest, but he did give him a vaguely confused look.

They both ran through the street, until the fire-bender called for a stop. He bent over, leaning on his knees and trying to catch his breath. Manik was a little winded, but he felt he could've gone on a little longer before breaking.

"We can't stop here," he said. "There's still about a mile to go."

"A MILE?!" the other teen practically shouted.

Manik shrugged. "It's on the edge of town, I told you that." Then something occurred to him. "Why are you following me anyways?"

"What?" The other asked, straightening up a bit.

"Two minutes ago, you were trying to grab my table, now you're running away from the Scanners with me. You never did tell me why you were running anyways."

"Does it really matter? We have to go!" He tried to start running again, but he tripped on a large rock that 'appeared out of nowhere'.

"Yes, it does matter. I don't know anything about you, and I hate helping people in general. I could just leave you here. It's not like you know the way to the settlement anyways."

The spiky-haired teen turned on the ground to look up at Manik, who was glaring down at him with his arms crossed.

"Give me a good reason why I should even keep talking to you."

Slowly, the other teen rose from the ground, putting a hand out in front of him in a calming manner.

"You're the avatar, right?" he said questioningly. Manik took a half step back, unwilling to be labeled with a title he didn't want, but was true nonetheless.

The other teen noticed this movement and his eyes widened slightly, almost in fear. "Wait, wait!" he said. "You need a fire-bending teacher; I can help you!"

Manik sneered. "I can help myself, why would I need you?"

"I learned from the great masters of the fire nation. I could teach you things that you could never learn if you went to a fire-bending teacher here."

It was a tempting offer, actually. If he was just a normal fire-bender, Manik could just fight him and try to replicate his attacks on his own, but if this teen was a master, and if, if, Manik was willing to be taught, he could learn skills he would never gain from wandering around on his own. Who knows how that could improve his chances against the organization when the time came.

Manik gave the fire-bender a suspicious look. "What's in it for you?" No one did anything without having something to gain.

The teen twitched. Then he reproduced his pompous airs from before and straightened to his maximum height, putting a hand to his chest dramatically.

"Is there no other reason necessary than the desire to serve the avatar?"

Manik could only stare at him, silently trying to say, _why are you doing that?_ It was like he went from a normal teenager to a rich, self-serving brat in two seconds. It was obvious that there was more to the story than that, even more so because of the attitude change, but he'd let it slide for now.

Manik replied with three words. "You are weird."

The edge of the other teen's mouth twitched upwards at that, and he dropped the charade again. "Is that a yes, though?"

He was wearing the same expression before, one that Manik could finally put

a name to: anticipation, like he was hoping for something but at the same time so afraid it would happen. He wondered why he looked like that.

Manik sighed. "Yes. I guess I could use a good fire-bending teacher."

The other teen's face lit up like a candle, his brown eyes sparkling in joy.

Eagerly, he stuck out his hand in between them. "It's a deal then."

Manik glared at the hand like it would bite him, but slowly reached out his own to take it. "What's your name anyway?"

"Liang," he said, shaking his hand firmly.

"Alright, _Liang_," Manik emphasized, letting go of his hand. "You better not screw up and betray me, or I'll kill you."

"Won't be a problem," his fire-bending teacher said.


End file.
